2018 food plot plan
- Thread starter Nova
- Start date
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
How many acres we lookin at there? Is that around 160? Just curious how big the plots are. On the positive side, that layout would give a lot of different stand site possibilities, could hunt different winds. The negative being you may always be in the wrong stand. Probably also depends on how many hunters you have. Looks like a good layout to get bucks on their feet potentially searching for does. I'm reducing my number of plots and making the best ones as big as possible. That's my plan for now.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
Love the clover lanes coming into the bean plot!
Nova
5 year old buck +
240 acres. The middle ag fields(55 acres) are rented out and has been alfalfa for 4 years. Most plots are between 1/2 acre and 2 acres. the bean plot is 4 acres. The northeast corner is 17 acre sanctuary.
Nova
5 year old buck +
Exactly, we don't enter that 17 acres at all until spring to shed hunt for one or two passes and hinge cut if needed, but only in spring. The only exception is if a wounded animals goes in there.
Peplin Creek
5 year old buck +
About the only thing I would consider, and you know your property best so I could be way off here. give them a late season food source up around that sanctuary. Could help promote bucks getting to that next age class. Do you plan to plant any grains? That’s the only other attractive food source missing. I would try to keep as much greenery as possible into the late months when the beans have yellowed. Clover will definitely work for that but oats/wheat/rye give them a different green source too. Then let them nail your beans and corn in those cold months. A ton of potential in your setup.
Nova
5 year old buck +
Excellent point, the sanctuary actually ends about 50 yards to the north of the 4 acre bean field. It's corn this year and I expect that to be a major travel corridor between the sanctuary and that corn. Next week should be a good test of that when the temps drop fast.
Right now all the plots that are corn on this map are beans now and all have winter rye overseeded in them. Next year the 4 acre bean field will have rye overseeded in it. I love overseeding beans with rye, and the deer love it when I do that too.
Thanks for the input!
Nova
5 year old buck +
I guess I don't really understand the question, but if you mean entry and exit to stands near food plot, each on has its own routes that w thought out before hanging stands. Some are a long walk depending on wind direction, others are a very short walk from the cabin. The cabin ia just north of the north ag field about center east to west.
Wild Thing
5 year old buck +
Looks nice Nova. From my perspective, those small corn plots would never amount to anything on my property where we have a fairly high deer density. Not sure what your deer density is? If you are just looking for screening there you might consider a tall grain sorghum or Egyptian Wheat maybe. Also, when Steve Bartylla looked at our property he recommended rings of clover around all of the food plots rather than dedicating an entire plot to just clover. We have done just that - as well as seeding clover on access trail and travel corridors, and there is more than enough clover to go around. You might consider that strategy and then plant one or more of your clover plots to sugar beets as an alternative. I am in Upper Michigan and sugar beets as a late season draw can not be beat.
